Normative Arguments for a European Social Union

• Antoon Vandevelde ^[1]
  1. [1] KU Leuven

     KU Leuven

     Arrondissement Leuven, Bélgica

     
• Localización: Reducing Inequalities. A Challenge for the European Union? / Renato Miguel do Carmo (ed. lit.), Cédric Rio (ed. lit.), Márton Medgyesi (ed. lit.), 2018, ISBN 978-3-319-65005-0, págs. 187-212
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Many politicians are sceptic about the desirability and feasibility of a European Social Union (ESU). The aim of this chapter is to see whether we can find strong enough counterarguments to dismiss this scepticism. Therefore, we will turn to the specifically ethical discussion about this issue. It is surprising that normative political philosophers did not pay more attention to the question of what justice could mean for intermediary regional organisations like the European Union (EU). Probably this is a consequence of the fact that this discipline is dominated by Anglo-Saxon philosophers who tend to be euro-sceptic. However scepticism about the ESU is also present on the continent, in the heads of people who are generally in favor of the EU. We will first explain the reasons for this scepticism and specify what we have in mind when talking about an ESU. Then we will argue that three strategies can be followed in order to prove the necessity of the development of an ESU. (1) One can show that arguments in favour of the implementation of (more) just institutions on a national scale can be expanded to supranational levels like the EU. (2) One can show that theories of cosmopolitan justice apply all the more at the European level. (3) Finally, we will argue in favour of the ‘public goods’ argument for the development of an ESU. The EU already provides an important range of public goods to its citizens and it could expand this offer considerably by developing a social union. Of course, feasibility constraints play an important role in the reflection on how social justice should be implemented on a European scale. Although there are clear advantages to organising forms of interindividual redistribution within the EU, we suggest that, for the following years, Europe should focus rather on a macro-economic policy narrowing the gap between the Northern and Southern countries and on the expansion of social investment for the enhancement of the basic capabilities of the poorest European citizens.